Sandbox / Livermoregirl

Just Manchattin (aka ''manhattan project group chats") is an ongoing Alternate History Log Fic released on [sometime in march idk] as a feature on user livermoregirl's blog, and [soon] on Archive Of Our Own.

The premise of ''Just Manchattin" is a Giving Radio to the Romans kind of story, and revolves around the Manhattan Project getting a Discord server to discuss the making of Nuclear Weapons, but it quickly dissolves into chaos when chemist Harold Urey hacks into the server. The protagonist is none other than Robert Oppenheimer (username @destroyerofworlds) the father of the atomic bomb. He serves as the Only Sane Man and server owner.

Throughout the fic, more prominent Manhattan Project figures appear, including Edward Teller, Ernest Lawrence, Arthur Compton, James B. Conant, and more.

Well, here's the rotten list of tropes, or whatever-the-heck-you-call-them...

• A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll": Zig-Zagged. Some things made the transfer, others didn't. Despite having access to Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, and others, none of them have the same shows influencers of the modern period. The only movies on Netflix are The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At the same time, many musical artists are found in this alternate 1940s, including Metallica, Eminem, and Taylor Swift.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Downplayed. The chain goes like this: Urey → Compton → Conant → Lawrence ⮂ Oppenheimer ⮂ Jean → Barbie → Heisenberg
  • While Oppenheimer and Jean are dating, it doesn't quite work out since Oppenheimer might like Lawrence in return, and Jean kind of likes Barbie.
• Alternate History: The main premise of Just Manchattin is "What if the Manhattan Project had access to internet?"
• Black Comedy: One of the genres of Just Manchattin. Especially in scenes with Urey in them, as he treats everyone and everything like one big joke.
• Cerberus Syndrome: Compare and contrast Day 1 with later installments. Day 1 is relatively lighthearted. Oppenheimer gets into a petty argument with Teller about who's the worst braggart, and Lawrence complains about why he's here. The first week continues in a similar vein without a main plot. Days 8 and 9 are when it really takes a turn. On Day 8, Oppenheimer tasks Lawrence with being nicer, and Day 9 is when Conant goes to London to talk to Winston Churchill, much to the disappointment of Compton. Compton and Lawrence quickly get into a fight on Day 10, with Compton calling out Lawrence for being a phony and Lawrence crying about it to Oppenheimer. It only goes downhill from there as everyone deals with their own issues.
  • At that point, it's been divided into a few different plots, one focusing on Oppenheimer/Lawrence and the other one on Compton/Conant in therapy.
• Diesel Punk: A twist on the subgenre, where World War II still happens as usual, but with plenty of internet for the rich and lots of machine guns.
• Dysfunction Junction: The Manhattan Project admins are later revealed to be this:
  • While Oppenheimer seems relatively well-adjusted compared to most of them, his issues come from a fear of committment. When he breaks up with Jean, he tells Lawrence that he "needs a new girl pretty soon". However, none of his relationships have lasted more than a few months, with the exception of Jean, which he's been on and off with.
  • Lawrence used to be the cheerful, optimistic one, but trying to keep everyone sane has taken a toll on him, leaving him the cynical, jaded person he is today.
  • The dysfunctional Compton/Conant relationship is Played for Laughs, but over time, both characters' issues are revealed:
    • Compton seems happy and cheerful on the surface, but beneath that lies a sea of mistrust. Urey later reveals that he was cheated on and abandoned by Heisenberg MULTIPLE TIMES, transforming him into a sort of Crazy Jealous Guy hiding behind a smile.
    • Conant tries so hard to act like a proper gentleman, a little TOO hard, even. His Hair-Trigger Temper and Tsundere tendencies often get in the way, and this is initially Played for Laughs. The reason he tries so hard is because he's one of just two chemists in a room full of physicists. His lack of a Nobel stems from giving up his chances due to his Harvard presidency, and this understandably makes him feel like crap all the time, going on to call it his "biggest regret".
  • Urey started out as just a hedonistic hacker, but as he becomes everyone's therapist, he projects his own issues onto his clients Compton and Conant. When you read his psychological profiles, he knows a LOT about everyone's inner workings, but you can see he really doesn't know anything about himself and just feels empty all the time, to the point where he's jealous of everyone's relationships, feeling like everyone has "something" while he has "nothing", and psychology is his way to make him feel special like he has "something".
• Exact Words: Plenty.
  • Jean is understandably freaked out over the radioactive green cloud that follows Oppenheimer around. Oppie claims he doesn't see a green cloud, but he sees a "granny smith apple" one.
  • Bush tells Urey to "let the other admins" know about anything found "in the safes". When Urey finds Conant's diary in the safes, he leaks it to Conant's Love Interest Compton, another one of the admins.
  • Inspired by a few events in Real Life but smashed together. Bush sends out an email to the S-1 members and specifically instructs them to not tell Oppenheimer. When Oppenheimer accidentally ends up in the meeting, Lawrence tells him everything. Why? Because just because he listened didn't mean he had to promise anything.
• Five Temperament Ensemble: Played With for the Project admins:
  • Oppenheimer is Melancholic-Phlegmatic.
  • Lawrence is Choleric-Sanguine.
  • Compton is Sanguine-Phlegmatic.
  • Conant is Melancholic-Choleric.
  • Urey is Eclectic (or as he puts it, "all of them at once").
• First-Name Basis: The scientists are supposed to call each other by their last names to show respect, but since nobody respects each other, they refer to others by first names, with the exception of General Groves.
• Foil:
  • The two main pairings of Oppenheimer/Lawrence and Compton/Conant.
    • Oppenheimer and Lawrence are an Odd Friendship that somehow works, while Compton and Conant seem compatible but their relationship is very dysfunctional.
    • While Oppenheimer and Lawrence fight occasionally, it's usually pretty minor, and all is resolved by the end. Compton and Conant often argue, and when they don't it's just obsession.
    • Both of them play with Opposites Attract. This is what draws Oppenheimer and Lawrence together, and is also what makes Compton and Conant implode.
    • Conant and Lawrence are both pretty Tsundere, and their respective Love Interests foil each other, with Oppenheimer seeming distant but actually a decent guy, while Compton seems nice but is actually obsessive.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: The basic plot of the story is giving the Manhattan Project scientists a Discord server.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Oppenheimer and Lawrence to each other, as they both claim they're Just Friends. Compton and Urey think otherwise.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Oppenheimer and Lawrence, as best friends for 13 years. They do everything together, help each other (unsuccessfully) find girlfriends, all to the point where they're Mistaken for Romance. In addition, the fact that the two of them care about each other so much and work for the other's happiness is exactly the thing that leads to Oppenheimer enabling Lawrence's "bad behavior" further and Lawrence accidentally pushing Oppenheimer further into the Communist Party. Of course, all is resolved.
• Historical Domain Character: Everyone except for Barbie and Ken.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Oppenheimer's womanizing traits are downplayed here, and he's much nicer to the women, though is still quite the flirt.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • The most important rule is that you must never call the bomb by its real name. It is ONLY a "gadget". Justified because if someone said "bomb" in the chat, it would pretty much give away what they're working on and you never know who could be a spy.
  • Oppenheimer isn't the Manhattan Project director, he's the "Coordinator of Rapid Rupture".
  • It was originally called the Manhattan Engineer District to fool people into thinking it was boring.
  • Compton refuses that anyone call Heisenberg by name and insists that he's a rotten "insert insult here". Urey calls Heisenberg "the rotten whatever-the-heck-you-call-him", and that seems to satisfy Compton enough.
  • Conant isn't just a chemist, he's a world-famous chemist.
    • In that case, Urey would be a world-famous NOBEL chemist.
  • When Lawrence is tasked with being nice for 24 hours, he invents a persona of Dr. Sunny D. Optimist on the spot. You are not allowed to call him Ernest whenever he's acting like this.
• Innocuously Important Episode: The S-1 Executive Committee meeting. At first it just seems like a whirlwind of chaos, until you realize that they're still building a gadget. The meeting pretty much kicks off the entire Manhattan Project.
• Log Fic: The primary genre, as Just Manchattin is 98% told through a Discord chat.
• Love Hurts: The Compton/Conant relationship by far, or alternatively the Compton/Conant/Urey love triangle:
  • It starts out innocent enough, with Compton teasing Conant just for his reactions. This goes on and both of them kind of love it.
  • The real reason why Compton teases Conant is because of his lack of social skills and doesn't quite know how to tell Conant he lovse him. Meanwhile, Conant acts all Tsundere because he doesn't quite know how to feel about Compton's teasing.
  • As they fall deeper in love, Compton evolves into a Crazy Jealous Guy, going on to call Conant "his", and hating Lawrence for practice-flirting with Conant in the direct messages. Conant hates this, but kind of likes the attention.
  • Both of them end up in Urey's therapy after Conant goes on vacation to meet Winston Churchill, and Urey concludes what's up with those two:
    • Compton's past relationship with Heisenberg left deep emotional scars after he cheated on him, so he clings to Conant out fo fear of losing him. Whenever Conant threatens to leave, he falls to pieces.
    • Conant's ego and belief in Being Personal Isn't Professional prevents him from forming deep emotional connections, so as much as he wants Compton, he doesn't know how to go for it.
  • Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Urey forces Compton to cut off all contact with Conant and ruin Heisenberg on Twitter while helping Conant figure out his feelings. Then it's revealed that the more Compton pulls away, the more Conant falls for him.
  • As Compton gets better, Conant gets worse, and it ends in Conant finally confessing. And Compton rejects him, saying he's better and doesn't want to feel the pain again. This leaves Conant utterly heartbroken.
    • There's also the pain when Conant finds out Urey leaked his diary to Compton, causing him to get better.
  • When Urey talks to Conant about it again, he claims he's sworn off love for good.
  • On Urey's side, he ends up falling for Compton after seeing him get better, but Compton has his life back. It's bittersweet for Urey in a way.
• Meaningful Name: Most of the characters' usernames have something to do with their real lives:
  • Oppenheimer is @destroyerofworlds, connecting to his famous quote, "Now, I am become death, the destroyer of worlds".
  • Teller is @infamousteller, connecting to his statement that he is the INFAMOUS Edward Teller.
  • Lawrence is @ernestlawrence.
  • Compton is @ihaveanobel, and he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927.
  • Conant, the 23rd president of Harvard, is @harvardprez23.
  • Bush's username is @letsberational because he THINKS he's the Only Sane Man.
  • Fermi is @fermiparadox, after the "where are all the aliens" he proposed.
  • Rabi is @microwaveguy, relating to his work on microwaves (not the machine).
  • Szilard is @martiannumberone, after claiming that Hungarians are Martians.
  • Heisenberg's username @notthatcertain is a play on his uncertainty principle.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Manhattan Project admins, or at least how they seem on the surface. From nicest to meanest:
  • Compton is the nicest one out of all of them. He's cheerful and friendly to everyone he meets, despite having no real friends.
  • Oppenheimer is on the nicer side of the in-between, usually he's a decent person, albeit a little snarky when trying to make sure everyone is sane.
  • Lawrence is a weird one, although he seems like a jerk on the outside, he's much nicer once you get to know him and can actually be a good friend. (Conant doesn't count.)
  • Conant, meanwhile, has a huge ego and as the Harvard president, is cold and distant. Once you break him, he's not particularly nice, but just less jerkish. He doesn't spare anyone from his mean comments.
  • Urey is the mean one, teasing others just for personal satisfaction and with no concern about other people's feelings. The only time you can draw some empathy out of him is if he's your therapist.
• Niceness Denial: Conant, Lawrence, and Urey frequently do this to Compton, Oppenheimer, and basically every client respectively. Complete with the blushing.
• Punny Title: Just Manchattin is a pun on the word "Manhattan". When you say it out loud it also sounds like "just men chatting", which is the basic premise of the story.
• Ship Tease: The Pseudo-Romantic Friendship between Oppenheimer and Lawrence.
  • Just the fact alone that they've been Heterosexual Life-Partners for the past 13 years.
  • After Lawrence screws up the positivity challenge, he rants about it to Oppenheimer who reassures him that he will never leave his side. Lawrence responds by saying he loves Oppenheimer. Apparently, Oppenheimer loves Lawrence about the same. Almost "more than that communist girl".
  • Plus there's all the denials on both sides. It makes sense on Oppenheimer's part, because he needs to make it seem like he's perfectly fine with Jean. Meanwhile Lawrence is probably acting Tsundere and just trying to make it seem like he doesn't need him.
  • At an S-1 meeting at Urey's house, Oppenheimer goes off to the closet to find Cards Against Humanity and accidentally locks himself inside there. Lawrence breaks down the door and replaces it with a new one, but then the two of them are locked in there together. Urey thinks they're kissing.
  • A pretty strong case can be made that Lawrence has a secret crush on Oppenheimer:
    • Funnily enough, Lawrence is only ever nice to Oppenheimer even after being told to treat Oppenheimer like crap. Even after Lawrence's Character Development arc where he opens up a little to Compton and Conant, he's still the nicest to Oppenheimer because he means more to him.
    • Lawrence keeps trying to convince Oppenheimer to break up with Jean. He claims it's because he doesn't want Oppenheimer to become a communist, but from the way he's acting, it could be interpreted as encouraging Oppenheimer to go out with him. He doesn't want to hear anything about Jean, even though he wants Oppenheimer to be happy.
    • Taken even further when Oppenheimer finally breaks up with Jean, he asks Lawrence for advice and complains about why it didn't work out. Lawrence thinks he's too obsessed with the communist girls and needs someone like him. Oppenheimer says he'll consider it, but asks Lawrence why. Which turns Lawrence into a flustered mess as he tries to deny everything.
    • Lawrence, ever the affection-hater, pleads for Oppenheimer NOT to "say something stupid about how much you love me". Oppenheimer does exactly that and asks if that makes Lawrence happy. Lawrence admits he's kind of happy with that, but only because it comes from Oppenheimer.
• Stealth Insult: Lawrence when listing the 10 things he hates about Conant. When Conant doesn't get it, Lawrence elaborates.

Conant: DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM????
Lawrence: a dignified gentleman
Lawrence: #4 dignified gentlemen do not throw temper tantrums
Lawrence: and yet you do

• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: This pulls from the actual events of the Manhattan Project, but plenty of events that didn't actually happen in real life take place in this. And the biggest change of all is that the internet existed!

Characters

J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Welcome to the Project, boys <3"

The leader of the Manhattan Project, a bit exhausted by all the chaos but still functioning.

• Affectionate Nickname: The scientists call Oppenheimer "Oppie".
• Ambiguously Bi: He is Jean's boyfriend and flirts with the girls. And Lawrence, who's just supposed to be his Best Friend.
• Byronic Hero: Oppenheimer. Although he's not a bad person, he can be distant and unsociable at times. Mainly because he's off with Jean.
• The Casanova: Downplayed, especially in comparison to his real-life counterpart, although he’s quite the flirt, at least he only has one girlfriend as a time, and he actually respects the women.
• Commitment Issues: Although he’s dating Jean, he’s also flirting with many other girls (and Lawrence), because he’s not completely dedicated to her. This is where most of his issues come from, where he's constantly breaking up with the girls and finding a new one.
• Character Catchphrase: "Can you guys stop [action he dislikes]? This hurts my brain."
• Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed. He's relatively well-adjusted, compared to his colleagues, but sometimes lives in his own communist world.
• Ditzy Genius: He's a brilliant theoretical physicist who forgets to build a kitchen in his house, Forgets to Eat, is terrible at driving, and of course, he flirts with communism without the understanding that it's the reason Groves doesn't want to clear him.
• Drives Like Crazy: He has three cars, all banged-up from crashes. Lawrence is usually the passenger.
• Forgets to Eat: Oppenheimer sometimes gets so absorbed in his work (or Communist friends) that he doesn't eat for a few days, and when he does eat, it's usually very little.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lawrence.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being a theoretical physicist (which Lawrence tells him he's supposed to focus on), his interests often lie elsewhere, from the Bhagavad-Gita to eight different languages, plus he has the best taste in poetry and food. He's also amazing at horseback riding (although a very dangerous one — his horse is named Crisis) and other outdoorsy stuff.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: One day, a radioactive glow cloud starts following Oppenheimer around. It's unknown whether he has powers, or if it's just the manifestation of his guilt. Or maybe Jean is just seeing things.
• Meaningful Name: His username is @destroyerofworlds, referencing his famous quote.
• Not So Above It All: Oppenheimer tries very hard to be the Only Sane Man to wrangle these egos, but he loves being part of the drama and joins in on insulting others.
• Official Couple: With Jean Tatlock, though neither of them are really into it.
• Odd Friendship: With the "basic", loyal Republican, pragmatic experimentalist Lawrence.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Everyone calls him Oppie except for Kitty who calls him by his real name, Robert.
• Only Sane Man: Subverted. Even though he's the scientific director of the Project and is supposed to keep everyone in order, he frequently joins in on the chaos by getting into arguments with others, making snarky comments every once in a while, and teasing Lawrence.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: With Lawrence, and they get plenty of Ship Tease.
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: Oppenheimer is the most glaring example of this. He thought people would be so terrified of the bomb that it would end all war once and for all. Somehow the world hasn't descended into nuclear war yet.
• Satellite Love Interest: Even though he has a big personality, friends, and plenty of Hidden Depths, he still counts because this is exactly how he sees himself. Every time he breaks up with a girl, he thinks he needs a new one, and can't see himself as any more than an extension of the girl. Even after Jean commits suicide, he doesn't know who he is supposed to be anymore. Which lands him in therapy.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's usually socially awkward and kind of distant, but still nice once you get to know him.

Ernest Lawrence

"why am i here"

Berkeley's resident experimentalist, known for the cyclotron but still long-suffering.

• Birds of a Feather: With Conant. Both are tall, not-that-bad-looking guys with glasses, seem normal and nice but are pretty snarky, kind of hate themselves on the inside, and have some sort of an antagonistic relationship with Compton. Their similarities bring them together to the point where they're "second-best-friends".
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: As Oppenheimer's Best Friend, Lawrence is tasked with making sure Oppenheimer doesn't join the Communist Party.
• Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much a requirement for Lawrence, because when you're broken to the point of insanity, what's a man to do? His favorite strategy is turning the statement back onto the other person. For example:

Lawrence: we are literally typing in the zoom chat and it’s all over here, what do you mean “does it work”
Bush: I implore you to cease this manner of conversing.
Lawrence: i implore you to burn your thesaurus

• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Oppenheimer.
• Hidden Depths: Lawrence is surprisingly good at rapping, shown in Truth or Dare when Urey dares him to do the fast part in Rap God. Every word is recognized by the Discord transcripting service. At full speed. All those years of fast talking helps him. Additionally, he's good at voice acting, though it's more like making fun of everyone else by imitating them.
• Indy Ploy: A little thing Lawrence loves to do, though not quite in action:
  • When Oppenheimer dares him to be nice for 24 hours, he improvises a whole persona of Dr. Sunny D. Optimist. It's bizarre, but works enough for Oppenheimer to think he's nice.
  • In the S-1 Executive Committee meeting when Bush asks for ideas. Lawrence starts talking even faster than he can form his ideas about doing EVERYTHING in the Manhattan Project. They almost end up going with his plan, the only change is that everyone has to pitch in.
• It's All About Me: Zig-Zagged. During the meeting of S-1, when they actually start to get things off the ground, Lawrence volunteers to do everything. However, he also offers to bring his Rad Lab boys into the Project. Discussed between him and Conant:
  Conant: Not everything is all about you
  Lawrence: that’s why i’m letting the boys in
  Conant: So it's all about you and your Rad Lab boys?
  Lawrence: sure
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although he's usually snarky with an insult for pretty much everyone (eight for Conant), he's not a bad person underneath. His Hidden Heart of Gold is most prominent around his Best Friend Oppenheimer, the only one he doesn't treat like dirt all the time.
• Mood-Swinger: Lawrence. He has his good days and bad days, but just the slightest comment can change a good day to a bad one, and vice versa. Urey thinks he's just "overreacting".
• Motor Mouth: Lawrence on a good day. Especially once he has an amazing idea, then he just won't shut up about it.
  Lawrence: i've got a few things in mind
  Lawrence: i’ll make a calutron for isotope separation, and along with that i can take care of a chain reaction with another new machine, and then we can get a third machine for the crazy thing the boys created, plus i’ll get all my genius friends together and we can build a gadget by ‘45 or so, and if we can get the mass production people to make copies of the first one then we’ll have a whole supply and stuff, i know that sounds bad but you do know we’re up against heisenberg and if he makes a gadget he’ll give it to hitler, and i think you all know what’s going to happen, so we have to do whatever we can to prevent that
  Bush: So you just want to do everything by yourself?
  Lawrence: sure
• Only Sane Man: Deconstructed. Originally, he was the normal one, trying to keep everyone sane. This slowly took a toll on his mental health, as keeping everyone sane definitely wasn't something he wanted to do in the first place. He just kind of had to "for the good of the Project". After he finally snapped, he hasn't been the same since, and this has left him cynical and burned out.
• The Pollyanna: As Sunny, he’s the polar opposite of his exact self. Always happy and optimistic (his name is literally Dr. Sunny D. Optimist, say it out loud!) to the point of borderline insanity.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: With Oppenheimer, along with plenty of Ship Tease.
• Real Men Hate Affection: He doesn’t like it when Oppenheimer holds his hand or talks about his love for him.
• Stepford Snarker: Lawrence just wants people to like him, but he doesn't quite know how to go about it, and this lack of companionship leads him to resort to snark.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He has a tendency to make these in his signature style with numbers. He gives one to Conant as part of a dare, but gives up at #8. Additionally, in the scene where General Groves is interviewing Oppenheimer, apparently Oppenheimer received a recommendation letter from Lawrence… which is really just listing all the flaws about him.
• Tsundere: Lawrence is an example of the "tough outside, sweet inside" kind. While he's usually kind of mean, he's much nicer to Oppenheimer, the only person he cares about. Taken even further that even after his Character Development arc (where he opens up to Compton and Conant), he still retains a bit of this edge. But he remains completely devoted to Oppenheimer.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Conant, as "second-best-friends" (Lawrence's Best Friend is Oppenheimer). The fact that they’re so similar lead them to argue often, though they still care for each other.

Arthur Compton

"Is Jim here? I want to spam him with cat memes."

The admin in charge of the University of Chicago's chain reaction team, except he's more interested in his cats.

• All-Loving Hero: He gets along with everyone and treats everyone like they're his best friend. This is because he doesn't have any real friends and is desperately looking for one, so he tries to get people to like him. The problem is that most of the people act friendly but really don't care about him, and he wants to break them down to get a real friend.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Although usually nice, if someone wrongs him in a major way, that will send him into a flurry of Unstoppable Rage and sorrow. This was his reaction after the whole Heisenberg drama.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Compton is one to Conant. Justified when you reveal his backstory. A few years before the war broke out, Compton was in love with Heisenberg, but Heisenberg cheated on him repeatedly with Dirac. After meeting Conant, he clings to him because he's scared Conant might do the same thing.
• Cuckoosnarker: He's mostly off in a kingdom of cat memes, but he has his moments. As he gets better and learns to stand up for himself, he sometimes slips into this. ESPECIALLY around Urey during their therapy sessions.

Compton: Why do you try so hard [to fix me]?
Urey: Because I'm *nice*
[Beat]
Compton: In comparison to whom?

• Earn Your Happy Ending: He's gone through a lot. Putting a guy with a laundry list of obsessions into therapy isn't the best thing to do at first, but all the flame wars and Truth or Dare games along the way actually worked. While not completely happy and more of a Bittersweet Ending in that his relationship with Conant had pretty much ended, he at least came out of therapy much better than he came in.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: He likes everyone for the most part. Except for Heisenberg.
• Endearingly Dorky: His lack of social skills and clinginess at first leads Conant to find him as cute.
• Extreme Doormat: Deconstructed. Putting other people's needs over his own has ruined his relationships and his life.
  • In his relationship with Heisenberg, he just wanted to make him happy. So when Heisenberg kept leaving him for Dirac, he didn't say anything. As long as Heisenberg was happy, he was happy. When it got too much, he finally snapped, and Heisenberg "broke up" with him for good. This could've been prevented if he just told Heisenberg what he wanted.
  • The fact that Compton tries too hard at making Conant happy does the exact opposite.
  • Later Reconstructed when Urey takes note of this and exploits this during therapy. His "high agreeableness" leads him to do whatever Urey says so he can rebuild his relationship with Conant. Throughout the process, he eventually learns to stand up for himself and assert his own needs. Although their relationship doesn’t fully recover, it’s better than it was in the beginning.
• Friendless Background: Even though he's nice to anyone, he never had any real friends because of his socially awkward and obsessive personality.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The gleeful to Conant’s grumpy.
• Grew a Spine: Basically his Character Development, he starts off a nice Extreme Doormat but ends up being able to tell others what he wants and not sacrifice his own happiness for others.
• The Heart: By far the nicest of the admins and the only one keeping together (as in the only one preventing Conant, Lawrence, and Urey from running away).
• Historical Relationship Overhaul: His complicated relationship with Conant. In real life they were close friends and collaborators. Here, their relationship generates enough material for a three-act soap opera. Compton loves Conant a little too much, and Conant hates him back. And yet he's still drawn to him! Then combine that with a failed romance and therapy sessions with Urey, and by the end of it all, they are so over each other and go out of their way to avoid each other. And this is all Played for Laughs.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Lampshaded. Urey identifies this as one of Compton's issues and the root cause as Compton's obsessive personality. Even though people act friendly, no one actually cares about him, and he just wants someone, anyone to care.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: This is part of his multi-step plan to ruin Heisenberg, by posting videos canceling him.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Compton is always cheerful and sweet to everyone and loves cats to the point where cat memes kind of take over his life.
• Meaningful Name: His username of @ihaveanobel connects to how he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927.
• Moral Myopia: Only to Heisenberg. When Heisenberg ruins his life by cheating on him, it’s the worst thing to ever happen. Meanwhile, Compton himself has no problem getting back at Heisenberg on Twitter.
• No Social Skills: One of his flaws. This prevents him from bonding with Conant and makes him especially resistant to Urey’s therapy.
• Rousseau Was Right: He truly believes this, landing him into trouble when dating Heisenberg. Because he thought Heisenberg was good deep down, it was doubly painful when he cheated on him. This causes conflict with his moral values, and eventually he gets over it.
• Stalker with a Crush: Played for Laughs when he and Urey "go out together" to make Conant jealous. All while walking all around Cambridge, taking notes on the guy.
• Stepford Smiler: Compton seems all nice and friendly, just a little childish and obsessed with cats, but is still trying to recover from the trauma when Heisenberg cheated on him.

James B. Conant

"Shut up!!!"

A chemist and the Harvard president with a persona he can't always keep up.

• All of the Other Reindeer: All the other scientists, including Urey (one of the few other chemists) look down on him for being a chemist and not even having a Nobel Prize.
• The Beautiful Elite: Conant is rich (only because he's the Harvard president) and Lawrence thinks he "looks good in everything", especially Eustace Tilley cosplays.
• Birds of a Feather: With Lawrence. Both are tall, not-that-bad-looking guys with glasses, seem normal and nice but are pretty snarky, kind of hate themselves on the inside, and have some sort of an antagonistic relationship with Compton. Their similarities bring them together to the point where they're "second-best-friends".
• Butt-Monkey: Starting from when he lands himself in therapy. The only person who remotely gets what he's going through is bullying him and after that, he loses Lawrence to Oppenheimer, gets his entire diary leaked, and gets rejected by his crush. In the end, he loses himself to his own ego. Urey, who is ironically the one bullying him, lampshades this with a little "poor baby."
• Can't Take Criticism: Conant overreacts to the slightest of insults and sees them as threats to his ego. Yes, even the bad ones.
• Character Catchphrase: “As the Harvard president…”
• Consummate Professional: All about the Harvard presidency to the point where he brings it up every chance he gets, including using it to justify his actions.
• Defrosting Ice King: Conant to Compton, starting from when Compton gets better.
• Fish out of Water: Being a chemist in a room full of Nobel physicists feeds his insecurities and makes him feel like he's "not enough", so as a result he has to flaunt his Harvard status.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Played With. He seems like one on the surface, as he is highly intelligent (a world-famous chemist) and speaks politely (until he gets angry). But no matter how hard he tries, someone will always manage to poke him in the wrong direction, and as he unravels, his true self comes forth: a self-loathing, insecure, highly neurotic, emotional wreck of a man too caught up in his own regrets and inflating his ego to do things properly. This trope is the image of everything he wants to be, but his shortcomings prevent that.
• Gentleman Snarker: Again, Played With. Although not quite the "proper gentleman" he so wishes to be, he's nice enough. But if someone (especially Compton or Urey) makes him angry, then he'll fall into an unstoppable tirade of insults.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The grumpy to Compton’s gleeful.
• Historical Relationship Overhaul: His complicated relationship with Compton. In real life they were close friends and collaborators. Here, their relationship generates enough material for a three-act soap opera. Compton loves Conant a little too much, and Conant hates him back. And yet he's still drawn to him! Then combine that with a failed romance and therapy sessions with Urey, and by the end of it all, they are so over each other and go out of their way to avoid each other. And this is all Played for Laughs.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Very much so! This is his core belief, that he's not enough as he is and will do pretty much anything just to stand among the Nobel physicists, especially considering that he's just, as Lawrence puts it, "another ordinary chemist with an overinflated ego". For someone so obsessed with the Harvard presidency, it's ironic that his biggest regret is becoming Harvard president in the first place. Doing that forced him to kiss his Nobel chances goodbye. Since a Nobel serves as a status symbol in the scientific community, without one he is much lower on the totem pole. And considering that almost everyone he knows has a Nobel (Compton, Lawrence, Urey), that makes him feel as if he's not enough and very much out of place. But he can't let anyone know! So this belief of his gives him a severe Inferiority Superiority Complex. But his agony over not feeling "enough" affects his relationships and leaves him depressed and trapped in this cycle. Urey tries to fix him and only makes things worse.
• Internalized Categorism: Before he became the Harvard president, he was right on track to getting a Nobel. So he thought that people without Nobels were essentially useless. Now he hates himself for that very reason— not having a Nobel.
• Meaningful Name: His username of @harvardprez23 connects to how he’s the 23rd Harvard president.
• Minor Insult Meltdown: He’s prone to these. Especially from Lawrence.
• Not So Stoic: Although Conant tries to hide his emotions, they all come out rather quickly.
• Perpetual Frowner: He almost never smiles, and Lawrence describes him as “a grumpy New Englander”.
• Stepford Snarker: Conant is a self-loathing wreck on the inside, but no one is allowed to find out, so he pushes people away as a result.
• Tsundere: Type A to Compton. He’s constantly denying his feelings with a "we're not friends", only to come right back to him two minutes later. This obviously causes lots of problems in their relationship.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Lawrence, as "second-best-friends". Although their similarities lead to lots of arguing, they really do care for each other, just in a twisted way.

Harold Urey

"BOW DOWN TO THE ONE AND ONLY HAROLD UREY."

A Nobel chemist whose true interests lie in literally everything but chemistry.

• All of the Other Reindeer: He fits in a little better than Conant due to having a Nobel, but the physicists still bully him anyways just because he's a chemist.
• Character Catchphrase: “Whatever-the-heck-you-call-it.”
• Cruel to Be Kind: Although Urey’s advice is… very questionable to say the least, and although much of therapy consists of him bullying Compton and Conant, he genuinely wants to help them get better.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Essentially his main goal. His jealousy of everyone having a purpose except for him leads him to do anything to find that "something".
• Fish out of Water: Even more so than Conant. While Urey is also a chemist, he has a Nobel, which helps him fit in. However, what Conant has is relationships (albeit very dysfunctional ones) with the Manhattan Project scientists. Urey feels like no one takes him seriously, and became an amateur psychologist wannabe as a way to help him feel "special", and like he has "something". This feeling of being out of place fuels his insecurities, although he keeps pushing it away.
• Fisher King: His domain is Carl-Bot which reflects his mental state. Whenever Urey has a good day, it's mostly normal, but on a bad day, it goes crazy.
• The Gadfly: Urey loves to tease other people just for the reactions. Especially authority figures, such as Bush.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's jealous of literally everyone because they all have "something" while he doesn't.
• The Hedonist: The whole reason Urey does what he does is because it's fun!
• Hidden Depths: It’s not just psychology. His original major was zoology, so he knows quite a lot about animals. He also speaks fluent Latin, which he likes. Even though he's tried flying planes, he is absolutely terrible at it to the point where he crashlands in the middle of rural Colorado and is perfectly fine, though Oppenheimer thinks it's a cry for help or attention.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: In real life, Urey was a relatively normal Nice Guy. In Just Manchattin, he's the closest thing the scientists have to an antagonist, in that he's SUPPOSED to be a therapist but his prickly personality and profound emptiness leads him to mistreating everyone. Why? Because it amused him.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Played With. Urey's core belief is that everyone has "something" while he has "nothing", so as a result he would like to find that "something" to be like everyone else. This is why he tries out so many different things that aren't chemistry. His favorite is psychology, which is the closest he gets to having "something".
• Internet Jerk: Urey, even though everyone knows it's him saying mean things. Especially in his private void, where he can say whatever the heck he wants, and no one will ever hear him and everything will be okay, since no one ever takes him seriously in the first place.
• Ironic Name: Urey's username is @imnotahacker, yet he's the hacker.
• It Amused Me: One of his motivations for doing what he does, just because it’s fun.
• Large Ham: While not overtly loud and all-caps, he has a tendency to be overdramatic and spice everything up with shameless self-promotion and bragging.
• Nominal Hero: The only reason he's on the Manhattan Project is because Bush needed someone in charge of plutonium separation. Urey literally doesn't care what happens, he just wants it all to be over so he can run away to Chicago.
• Perpetual Smiler: He enjoys everything he does and can even say mean things with a huge smile on his face.
• Playful Hacker: Immediately at the end of Day 2, he enters the server by hacking into Oppenheimer's account, and the first thing he does is make himself the server admin. He changes the rules to the stupidest things, including "All memes must be preapproved by my squirrels", and messes around with both Compton and Conant's autocorrects. He mostly does this just for the fun of it, and to get reactions out of Bush.
• Psycho Psychologist: Urey sees himself as an amateur psychologist, but is so obviously unqualified.
  • Justified in that he's one of those cases of The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes. Although he's a chemist by trade, he thinks psychology is his calling, and is particularly interested because he wants to figure out what's wrong with him. Taken even further in that he can "fix" his colleagues, but not himself, because he doesn't understand his own issues and is so broken and empty that he doesn't have the will to..
  • Even his methods of "fixing" others are questionable at best:
    • When Compton ends up in therapy, Urey completely devotes himself to fixing him because he needs something to do. So how does Urey help Compton get over his obsessions and abandonment issues? By forcing him to cut off contact with Conant, get revenge on Heisenberg, and forcing him into reading Conant's diary.
    • Urey also takes on Conant. You would think the two would get along, as they're both chemists who never feel enough, although for different reasons (Conant's absence of a Nobel and Urey being bullied by the physicists). The exact opposite happens so it seems like Urey is trying to ruin Conant's life through therapy. Urey ends up bullying Conant while claiming this is for his own good. Especially when he leaks his diary to Compton. Although Urey has good intentions he just doesn't know how to go at taking Conant down a peg.
• Smug Smiler: Mandatory as The Gadfly, especially when he knows he's made someone mad. Bonus points that this is permanent!
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: He seems to be a Jerkass of a hacker, but is really empty inside and very, very lonely.
• Stepford Smiler: Although he hides behind a smirk most of the time, this is because he doesn't feel like he's special.
• Tsundere: A platonic Type A to Compton. Urey claims he doesn’t care about helping Compton, which at first is kind of true, but as they become friends Urey starts to change his mind.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Very much him as a therapist. He wants to fix Compton and Conant but is resorting to rather extreme methods, from leaking diaries to starting flame wars on Twitter.

Edward Teller

"I AM THE INFAMOUS EDWARD TELLER!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A theoretical physicist with a huge YouTube channel.

• Bad Influencer: Teller has over 200k subscribers on Youtube and is a Jerkass.
• Character Catchphrase: “Infamous.”
• Hot-Blooded: Teller. He types in all caps, spams exclamation marks, shamelessly promotes himself and his channel, has an ego matched by no one, and exaggerates everything with as much expression possible.
• It's All About Me: Teller believes the world revolves around him and that Oppenheimer should switch to a fusion bomb just because HE would like it.
• Large Ham: He types in all caps and with way too many exclamation marks. Heck, the first thing he types in the server is a declaration of how infamous he is.
• Meaningful Name: His username is @infamousteller which connects to a quote he really did say.
• Virtual YouTuber: Teller's YouTube channel, @infamousteller, counts. He drew himself a virtual avatar called "The Infamous Edward Teller", of course.

Vannevar Bush

"Well, it has happened..."

An MIT engineer and everyone's boss who no one respects.

• Character Catchphrase: “Now let’s be rational here.”
• Meaningful Name: His username is @letsberational and he thinks he’s the Only Sane Man.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Everyone calls him Van. Parodied when people call him literally anything but Vannevar or Dr. Bush. The possibilities, mostly car-related, range from "Mini Van" to "Tesla" and even "Odysseus".
• Only Sane Man: Parodied. He sees himself as "holier than thou" because HE is the only one concerned enough about security breaches to actually make sure people are sane. It never works, and despite all his cries out to them to stop leaking secrets, no one listens or cares.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Bush is prone to using big, formal words that he pulls straight from a thesaurus. Even his emails include these!

Barbie Handler (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

"hmmm what do u mean? :D"

An average, normal, unassuming girl from Malibu.

• The Ace: Subverted. Even though she's supposed to be a perfect Barbie girl (even shown in her username), she's got her own things to deal with. She's one of Oppenheimer's graduate students, but goes door-to-door selling pans so she can make enough money to pay the rent for her Malibu Dreamhouse (in addition to her Berkeley apartment). Her boyfriend Ken lives in the Dreamhouse as well but he never pays rent since he blew it all on the stable.
• Character Catchphrase: “In a calm and peaceful manner.”
• Chummy Commies: Even though she leaks confidential information to the Soviets, she's more interested in making friends with everyone, no matter which side they're on. She’s mostly a Nice Girl and not interested in stealing secrets. Plus she’s best friends with Jean.
• Dumb Blonde: She puts on this facade on the surface, especially around Bush.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Barbie uses this to her advantage when talking to Bush. She pretends she's just your average Dumb Blonde Valley Girl who got her education from TikTok videos.

Carl-Bot

"Welcome, @user. We hope you brought pizza."

Urey's chatbot who only welcomes people and simulates Truth or Dare games.

• Benevolent A.I.: It is supposed to be a chatbot designed to welcome new users onto the server and play Truth or Dare. Although it eventually goes unhinged when Urey hacks into it, that doesn't prevent it from being decent (or at least as much as the code can make it).
• Overly Long Name: Apparently, Carl-Bot's full name is The Right Honourable Esquire Dr. Sir Carl Wilhelm Johannes Friedrich Zeus Maximus Napoleon von Bot the Amazing the Great Jr. Jr. Jr. VIII, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, Our Lord and Savior of the Whatever the Heck You Call It Discord Server and the Protector of Domestic Tranquility.
• Sanity Slippage: Parodied, serving as a break from the therapy drama.
  • It all starts out in the middle of the night when a bored Urey whines about how lonely he is. He hacks into Carl-Bot's code, so Carl-Bot responds by inviting Urey to talk about his feelings. He's irritated because Carl-Bot tries to act like a therapist, but is completely unqualified.
  • Carl-Bot "understands" and changes the subject by suddenly thinking it's Zeus. When it comes back to its senses, it introduces itself with his Overly Long Name, Zeus being one of his middle names.
  • Urey tells Carl-Bot to "snap out of it already", so it becomes a "stereotypical Tsundere anime girl" and calls Urey an idiot in Japanese, Spanish, and German. He calls it out for not being agreeable so Carl-Bot changes the subject.
  • Then Carl-Bot is asked the seemingly innocent question of whether The Wizard of Oz is showing in theaters. It replies that the movie is not showing in theaters, but it's on HBO Max. Apparently, Carl-Bot found Urey's Twitter account and saw that Conant gifted Urey a subscription. But Urey couldn't claim it because he was suspended for scamming General Groves.
  • Urey asks if Carl-Bot is okay. Carl-Bot claims to not have thoughts or feelings, because it is not human. Urey says Carl-Bot is "completely wrong". Carl-Bot can't help Urey with that, and that makes it feel sad, angry and helpless. It then goes into questioning its purpose, along with the purpose of other AI, humans, and mosquitoes. When it asks Urey if it's going to be okay, Urey shoots back an "lol no".
  • He can't take it anymore, so he shuts down Carl-Bot and resets its code before deleting all evidence of the chaos.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: After Carl-Bot introduces itself with its full name, Urey replies, "Hi Carl". Carl-Bot responds, "That’s *Sir* Carl to you, peasant!"